Room type air conditioners typically have an indoor section and an outdoor section. The indoor section is responsible for cooling and dehumidifying the indoor room air while the outdoor section is responsible for exhausting heat into the outdoor environment. The indoor and outdoor sections each have a heat exchanger coil and a fan, and each has a return air opening and a discharge opening. A grille structure is normally installed over each section to prevent the entry of foreign objects, while allowing the free flow of air to and from the sections, as well as for aesthetic considerations. Typically, screws, clip or similar fasteners are used to attach the grille to the housing for the indoor section. However, such construction which requires separate fastener parts makes construction of the unit somewhat more difficult and requires undesirable process steps and additional parts inventory. Additional parts also add cost and time to repair or maintenance procedures and necessitate additional supply and inventory accounting.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,500 entitled "Grille Mounting For A Room Air Conditioner" describes an improved grille arrangement for an air conditioner window unit. In the '500 patent, a one piece molded plastic grille is shown and described with recesses on the grille that engage flanges on the main air conditioner housing to permit the grille to be installed without separate fasteners. The grille may also readily be removed without use of a tool or the like. U.S. Pat. No. 5,315,842 entitled "Grille Mount For A Room Air Conditioner" discloses a unitary molded grille cover for the indoor side of a window type air conditioner. The grille cover is installed without tools or fasteners. A transverse flange on the grille cover top wall is positioned into a groove or slot on a discharge deck of the air conditioner, and the grille cover is snapped into place with the bottom wall thereof extending beneath the base pan of the unit. Bosses on the base pan project into corresponding holes in the grille cover bottom wall to retain the grille cover in place.